We introduce optimized elastomeric conductive electrodes using a mixture of silver nanowires (AgNWs) with carbon nanotubes/polydimethylsiloxane (CNTs/PDMS), to build a portable earphone type of ...wearable system that is designed to enable recording electrophysiological activities as well as listening to music at the same time. A custom-built, plastic frame integrated with soft, deformable fabric-based memory foam of earmuffs facilitates essential electronic components, such as conductive elastomers, metal strips, signal transducers and a speaker. Such platform incorporates with accessory cables to attain wireless, real-time monitoring of electrical potentials whose information can be displayed on a cell phone during outdoor activities and music appreciation. Careful evaluations on experimental results reveal that the performance of fabricated dry electrodes are comparable to that of commercial wet electrodes, and position-dependent signal behaviors provide a route toward accomplishing maximized signal quality. This research offers a facile approach for a wearable healthcare monitor via integration of soft electronic constituents with personal belongings.
The synergistic effect of TiN nanocrystal with NG matrix can effectively restrain the shuttle effect of the Li polysulfides and accelerate the electrochemical reactions, leading to improved ...electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries.
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Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have become prospective candidates for next-generation energy storage owing to the high energy density and low cost. However, the sluggish kinetics of the electrochemical reaction and shuttle effect result in a rapid capacity decay. Herein, a titanium nitride nanocrystal/N-doped graphene (TiN@NG) composite is developed to host elemental sulfur. The TiN nanoparticles decorated on graphene sheets attract Li polysulfides (LiPSx) and catalyze the electrochemical reduction and oxidation of LiPSx in the discharge and charge processes, respectively. These two effects effectively restrain the dissolution of the LiPSx and accelerate the electrochemical reactions, thereby, alleviating the shuttle effect. As a result, the cathode composed of TiN@NG/S delivers a remarkable reversible capacity (1390 mA h g−1 at 0.1C) and excellent cycling performance (730 mA h g−1 after 300 cycles). We believe that this work can bring some inspiration for designing high-performance Li-S batteries.
Objective
Human complement C4 is complex, with multiple layers of diversity. The aims of this study were to elucidate the copy number variations (CNVs) of C4A and C4B in relation to disease risk in ...systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and to compare the basis of race‐specific C4A deficiency between East Asians and individuals of European descent.
Methods
The East Asian study population included 999 SLE patients and 1,347 healthy subjects. Variations in gene copy numbers (GCNs) of total C4, C4A, and C4B, as well as C4‐Long and C4‐Short genes, were determined and validated using independent genotyping technologies. Genomic regions with C4B96 were investigated to determine the basis of the most basic C4B protein occurring concurrently with C4A deficiency.
Results
In East Asians, high GCNs of total C4 and C4A were strongly protective against SLE, whereas low and medium GCNs of total C4 and C4A, and the absence of C4‐Short genes, were risk factors for SLE. Homozygous C4A deficiency was infrequent in East Asian subjects, but had an odds ratio (OR) of 12.4 (P = 0.0015) for SLE disease susceptibility. Low serum complement levels were strongly associated with low GCNs of total C4 (OR 3.19, P = 7.3 × 10−7) and C4B (OR 2.53, P = 2.5 × 10−5). Patients with low serum complement levels had high frequencies of anti–double‐stranded DNA antibodies (OR 4.96, P = 9.7 × 10−17), hemolytic anemia (OR 3.89, P = 3.6 × 10−10), and renal disease (OR 2.18, P = 8.5 × 10−6). The monomodular‐Short haplotype found to be prevalent in European Americans with C4A deficiency, which was in linkage disequilibrium with HLA–DRB1*0301, was scarce in East Asians. Instead, most East Asian subjects with C4A deficiency were found to have a recombinant haplotype with bimodular C4‐Long and C4‐Short genes, encoding C4B1 and C4B96, which was linked to HLA–DRB1*1501. DNA sequencing revealed an E920K polymorphism in C4B96.
Conclusion
C4 CNVs and deficiency of C4A both play an important role in the risk and manifestations of SLE in East Asian and European populations.
It is of great significance to design and innovate electrode materials with unique structures to effectively optimize the electrochemical properties of the secondary battery. Herein, inspired by ...neuron networks, an ingenious synthesis is proposed to fabricate NiSe with multidimensional micro-nano structures, followed by in situ construction of NiSe/NiO heterostructures via a temporary calcination. The major structure of bulk NiSe synthesized by the solvothermal method is 3-dimensional micron cluster spherical particles interwoven by uniform one-dimensional nanofibers. Such structures possess the synergistic advantages of nano and micro materials. After a temporary calcination in air, NiSe/NiO heterostructures should be formed in the bulk NiSe, which provides a built-in electric field to enhance diffusion kinetics of sodium ions. This special neural-like network and heterojunction structures ensure the excellent structural stability combined with rapid kinetics of the electrode, releasing 310.9 mAh g
−1
reversible capacity after 2,000 cycles at 10 A g
−1
. Furthermore, the electrochemical storage and ion transport mechanisms are elaborated by electrochemical analysis and theoretical calculation in more detail.
During operation of a lithium metal battery, uneven lithium deposition often results in the growth of lithium dendrites and causes a rapid decay in battery performance and even leads to safety ...issues. This is still the main hurdle hindering the practical application of lithium metal anodes. We report a new type of Janus separator fabricated by introducing a molecular sieve coating on the surface of the polypropylene separator that serves as a redistribution layer for lithium ions. Our results show that using this layer, the growth of lithium dendrites can be largely inhibited and the battery performance greatly improved. In a typical Li∥Cu half-cell with the Janus separator, the Coulombic efficiency of the lithium metal anode can be maintained at > 98.5% for over 500 cycles. The cycling life span is also extended by a factor of 8 in the Li∥Li symmetric cell. Furthermore, the high-strength coating improves the mechanical properties of the separator, thus enhancing safety. The effectiveness of our strategy is demonstrated by both the inhibited growth of lithium dendrites and the improved battery performance. Our methodology could eventually be generalized for electrode protection in other battery systems.
Chinese children left behind in rural areas while their parents seek work elsewhere experience a lack of parental monitoring and companionship, resulting in higher prevalence of health-risk ...behaviours. This study aimed to investigate the heterogeneity of health-risk behaviours among rural left-behind children in western China, and the associations between demographic characteristics and health-risk subgroups.
In this cross-sectional survey study, rural left-behind children (those who had not seen their parents for >6 months) from middle schools (aged 10–17 years) in Sichuan province, selected using a stratified cluster sampling method, were surveyed between November and December, 2015. Participants were given a self-administered questionnaire, which measured eight health-risk behaviours (unhealthy diet, tobacco use, binge drinking, accidental injury, physical inactivity, self-injurious behaviour, unhealthy internet use, and suicidal thoughts), demographics, household characteristics, their parents' relationship status, and their economic status. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify subgroups of rural left-behind children with distinct patterns of health-risk behaviours. Differences between health-risk subgroups in relation to demographic characteristics were examined using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Informed consent was obtained from children and parents, and ethics approval from the Medical Ethical Committee of Sichuan University, China (number 20140307).
1596 rural left-behind children completed the questionnaire (mean age 14·7 years SD 1·44; 712 45% boys). Four classes were obtained from LCA: high risk (69 4% of 1596), high risk of self-injury and suicidal thoughts (321 20%), moderate risk (479 30%), and low risk (727 46%). The multinomial logistic regression model revealed that, compared with the low-risk group, boys (odds ratio OR 2·22, 95% CI 1·32–3·74), and children whose parents' relationship was poor (OR 4·49, 2·48–9·73) were more likely to be classified as high risk. Children whose parents' relationship was poor (OR 2·98, 1·93–4·62) and those with high living expenses (OR 2·03, 1·18–3·51) were more likely to have a high risk of self-injury and suicidal thoughts than be at a low risk.
Our study is, to our knowledge, the first in-depth analysis of health-risk behaviours in left-behind children in rural western China. The clusters of heterogeneous health-risk behaviours in rural left-behind children are likely to require different tailored interventions. Particular attention should be paid to left-behind boys who have higher living expenses and those whose parents have a poor relationship when designing preventive group interventions.
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81472994, 30972546).
Skin diseases pose significant challenges in China. Internet health forums offer a platform for millions of users to discuss skin diseases and share images for early intervention, leaving large ...amount of valuable dermatology images. However, data quality and annotation challenges limit the potential of these resources for developing diagnostic models. In this study, we proposed a deep-learning model that utilized unannotated dermatology images from diverse online sources. We adopted a contrastive learning approach to learn general representations from unlabeled images and fine-tuned the model on coarsely annotated images from Internet forums. Our model classified 22 common skin diseases. To improve annotation quality, we used a clustering method with a small set of standardized validation images. We tested the model on images collected by 33 experienced dermatologists from 15 tertiary hospitals and achieved a 45.05% top-1 accuracy, outperforming the published baseline model by 3%. Accuracy increased with additional validation images, reaching 49.64% with 50 images per category. Our model also demonstrated transferability to new tasks, such as detecting monkeypox, with a 61.76% top-1 accuracy using only 50 additional images in the training process. We also tested our model on benchmark datasets to show the generalization ability. Our findings highlight the potential of unannotated images from online forums for future dermatology applications and demonstrate the effectiveness of our model for early diagnosis and potential outbreak mitigation.
The tribe Ranunculeae, Ranunculaceae, comprising 19 genera widely distributed all over the world. Although a large number of Sanger sequencing-based molecular phylogenetic studies have been ...published, very few studies have been performed on using genomic data to infer phylogenetic relationships within Ranunculeae. In this study, the complete plastid genomes of nine species (eleven samples) from
,
, and
were de novo assembled using a next-generation sequencing method. Previously published plastomes of
and other related genera of the family were downloaded from GenBank for comparative analysis. The complete plastome of each Ranunculeae species has 112 genes in total, including 78 protein-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and four ribosomal RNA genes. The plastome structure of Ranunculeae samples is conserved in gene order and arrangement. There are no inverted repeat (IR) region expansions and only one IR contraction was found in the tested samples. This study also compared plastome sequences across all the samples in gene collinearity, codon usage, RNA editing sites, nucleotide variability, simple sequence repeats, and positive selection sites. Phylogeny of the available Ranunculeae species was inferred by the plastome data using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference methods, and data partitioning strategies were tested. The phylogenetic relationships were better resolved compared to previous studies based on Sanger sequencing methods, showing the potential value of the plastome data in inferring the phylogeny of the tribe.
Purpose
The extent of myocardial fibrosis is closely related to the prognosis of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been reported to have multiple biological ...effects. However, the effect of LIPUS on diabetic heart fibrosis remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of LIPUS on diabetic heart fibrosis and explore its underlying mechanisms.
Methods and Results
High glucose (HG) was applied to cultured neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts (NRCFs) to mimic the in vivo hyperglycemia microenvironment. LIPUS (19.30 mW/cm
2
to 77.20 mW/cm
2
) dose-dependently inhibited HG-induced fibrotic response in NRCFs. Also, LIPUS downregulated NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4)-associated oxidative stress and nod-like receptor protein-3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation in NRCFs. In vivo, diabetes in mice was induced with streptozotocin (STZ). Mice in the LIPUS group and STZ + LIPUS group were treated with LIPUS (77.20 mW/cm
2
) twice a week for 12 weeks and then euthanized at 12 weeks or 24 weeks post-diabetes. Treatment with LIPUS significantly ameliorated the progression of cardiac fibrosis (Masson staining 6.5 ± 2.3% vs. 2.8 ± 1.5%,
P
< 0.001) and dysfunction (E/A ratio 1.35 ± 0.14 vs. 1.59 ± 0.11,
P
< 0.05), as well as NOX4-associated oxidative stress (relative expression fold of NOX4 1.43 ± 0.12 vs. 1.07 ± 0.10,
P
< 0.01; relative DHE fluorescence 1.51 ± 0.13 vs. 1.28 ± 0.06,
P
< 0.05) and NLRP3 inflammasome activation (relative expression fold of NLRP3 1.57 ± 0.12 vs. 1.05 ± 0.16,
P
< 0.01), at 12 weeks post-diabetes. At 24 weeks post-diabetes, the heart function in diabetic mice treated with LIPUS was still significantly better than untreated diabetic mice (E/A ratio 1.08 ± 0.12 vs. 1.49 ± 0.14,
P
< 0.001). Further exploration revealed that LIPUS significantly attenuated the upregulated angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and angiotensin II (AngII), in both HG-induced NRCFs and diabetic hearts (relative expression of ACE in myocardium 3.77 ± 0.55 vs. 1.07 ± 0.13,
P
< 0.001; AngII in myocardium 115.5 ± 21.77 ng/ml vs. 84.28 ± 9.03 ng/ml,
P
< 0.01). Captopril, an ACE inhibitor, inhibited NOX4-associated oxidative stress and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in both HG-induced NRCFs and diabetic hearts.
Conclusion
Our results indicate that non-invasive local LIPUS therapy attenuated heart fibrosis and dysfunction in diabetic mice and the effect could be largely preserved at least 12 weeks after suspending LIPUS stimulation. LIPUS ameliorated diabetic heart fibrosis by inhibiting ACE-mediated NOX4-associated oxidative stress and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in cardiac fibroblasts. Our study may provide a novel therapeutic approach to hamper the progression of diabetic heart fibrosis.
Na metal anodes have shown great promise for a low cost energy storage system but its practical application is hampered by the uncontrollable dendrite growth. Here, we present a ...sodiophobic–sodiophilic gradient interfacial layer to regulate the Na plating/stripping behavior by decorating Ag particles with a concentration gradient along the thickness of a carbon nanotube (CNT) film. This gradient interfacial layer is light in weight, mechanically robust and can guide Na deposition on the Ag-rich, sodiophilic region far away from the separator but next to the current collector, which effectively prevents the formation of Na dendrites. The gradient interfacial layer allows the Na metal anode to work at a reversible capacity of 8 mA h cm–2 at a current density of 8 mA cm–2 with a long lifespan of 1000 h. Our work provides a facile and efficient approach for guiding Na deposition and offers promise for application in practical Na metal batteries.
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